MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) – The materials that Russian investigators received from US authorities regarding the case of Russian adoptee Max Shatto in early April were “insufficient,” the Russian Foreign Ministry’s point man for human rights said on Tuesday.
“The investigative information pertaining to Maxim’s case that we received earlier from the US is incomplete, it is insufficient,” the Foreign Ministry's Special Representative for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Konstantin Dolgov said via his Twitter account.
Max Shatto, the three-year-old Russian adoptee also known by his Russian name Maxim Kuzmin, died on January 21. According to an autopsy report, he had bruises on his body in different stages of healing at the time of his death.
Texas investigators said the boy’s death – from a ruptured artery in his abdomen – was accidental, and a grand jury declined to indict either of the parents.
Russia is also seeking the return of Kirill, Maxim’s younger brother, who was also adopted by Texan couple Alan and Laura Shatto.
“As long as any uncertainty remains as to the causes of Maxim’s death, we cannot agree that his brother Kirill is not in danger in the Shatto family,” Dolgov said.
Max died just weeks after Russia enacted a ban on Americans adopting Russian children, partly due to concerns about previous deaths of adopted Russian children. Americans have adopted an estimated 60,000 Russian children over the last 20 years, of whom 20 have died.
The ban was part of Russian legislation passed shortly after Washington adopted the so-called Magnitsky Act, which introduced sanctions against Russian officials the United States suspects of abusing human rights. A spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said the Magnitsky Act had triggered the adoption ban.
